Long-term Therapy of Thyrotoxicosis with Thiouracil Compounds

Low Remission After Therapy for Graves Disease

“…16,24, 28), and disease of progressing severity in three cases(No. 30, 32, 37), which was thought to indicate a poor prognosis for remis¬ sion.Total urinary iodide content was measured in eight of the 44 patients reported (patients2,5,6,16,18,32, 35, 38). Eight consecutive 12-hourly urine samples were collected from these pa¬ tients prior to institution of therapy.Total iodine content was measured in each sample and was expressed as the mean of the four days of collection (micrograms per day).Remission was observed in only four of 35 (11.4%) patients (No.…”

Outcome of Long-Term Antithyroid Treatment of Graves' Disease in Relation to Iodine Intake

“…A change in the epidemiology or char¬ acter of Graves' disease in the area of Copenhagen, however, can not totally be excluded. In the previous study the patients were treated with MTU, but there is no evidence that carbimazole treatment is followed by lower remission rate than PTU and MTU (Goodwin et al 1954;Hershman et al 1966). The high relapse rate in the present study of 67.5 % is of the same order as in recently published reports from the Netherlands, USA and the United King¬ dom in which the relapse rates varied from 65 to 84°/o (Wiels 8c Kloppenborg 1969; Wartofsky 1973; Thalassinos et al 1974).…”

Antithyroid Drugs

“…over one year. On the other hand, Bartels (I950) and Goodwin et al (1954) maintain that the duration of treatment bears no relation to the length of the subsequent period of remission. Eight of twenty patients treated here with methyl thiouracil and kept on a maintenance dose for three months only, relapsed within six months.…”